Remote displays

[dexyweescot]

I have a project at work where we need to set up various screens around the workshop. Might be about 5 screens. The workshop is about 60m x 40m.

The shop manager updates a delivery schedule at various times during the day using Excel and wants to display this info on each screen. So a live image is needed that refreshes. Much the same as say, an airport departures screen.

There are a few options I have thought about. Each have their own problems.

1. Install a small laptop next to each screen, Using some sort of streaming software.
cons:
Expensive to setup

2. Using a HDMI splitter along with HDMI-Cat5e converters.
cons:
manager will need two monitors and extend his display to all the screens
might forget to keen Excel open on correct info
A lot of cabling
governed by shorter distances (60m for 480p)

Im wondering if there any guys in here who could think of a solution or even a company to do the works.

 

[VectorZ]

You could go down the cabled route but could turnout expensive or routing problem.

You could create a website hosted on the master PC. It could use the spreadsheet itself as a datasource, or create a local database as the datasource and have the spreadsheet update the database either every time the spreadsheet is updated, or pushed from the user by a button.

A page on the website could then update itself every x amount of secs/mins so it'll always show the latest data, and also display the data with a more pleasant aesthetic.

All the above would cost nothing other than somebodies time to create it, which either myself or I'm sure somebody else would be happy to do for nothing as it's quite simple.

You have lots of choices then for displaying. You could use one of the very cheap raspberry pi's at each screen to display a full screen browser page, or any smart device including TV's themselves... basically anything that has a browser. This also means you can view on phones, tablets etc. That's all wireless as well.

 

[dexyweescot]

You could go down the cabled route but could turnout expensive or routing problem.

You could create a website hosted on the master PC. It could use the spreadsheet itself as a datasource, or create a local database as the datasource and have the spreadsheet update the database either every time the spreadsheet is updated, or pushed from the user by a button.

A page on the website could then update itself every x amount of secs/mins so it'll always show the latest data, and also display the data with a more pleasant aesthetic.

All the above would cost nothing other than somebodies time to create it, which either myself or I'm sure somebody else would be happy to do for nothing as it's quite simple.

You have lots of choices then for displaying. You could use one of the very cheap raspberry pi's at each screen to display a full screen browser page, or any smart device including TV's themselves... basically anything that has a browser. This also means you can view on phones, tablets etc. That's all wireless as well.

that sounds an ideal solution. I did think about using maybe Android TV's or just a normal TV with a Firestick then use some sort of app. Even link to some google app.

We use office 365 on our network, which Ive not checked but may link to Android.

 

[dexyweescot]

How would the browser refresh on the TV then to give updates?

 

[VectorZ]

The webpage would have an auto refresh interval. Very easy and can be set to whatever you want.

 

[JonMMM]

Really simple. Use android boxes on the the monitors have install any desk on them, have them connect to the computer, and it will show what is on the computers display. have just tried to use it with multiple machines connected to the same computer and it works without kicking others off

 

[dexyweescot]

Thats another option. However means another cost to either buy android. Then the host would need 2 screens to see what's mirrored.

I'm not the greatest with office so I was playing around with Excel and noticed there is a publish web option.

I installed IIS on a machine, published the Excel file to the web server and boom. Can see the page on a TV browser. I had to shut my firewall down to let the traffic thru but can sort that.

Now with a little help, I can add the refresh code to add to the HTML page.

Just means running cat5 out to the smart TV,s

I'm not sure how wireless would perform with it being a factory and a lot of electro magnetic interference from the machines.

Thanks for the help guys. Greatly appreciated.

 

[fus10n]

Might be worth looking at a CMS called xibo. Its opensource digital signage - Its free for the CMS but the android player does cost a small amount which is a one off. There are other free ways to have the player installed. You could buy some basic firetv sticks to run the player or any android media device(some really cheap devices don't work too well). I've tested firetv sticks and they are perfect as they sit nicely behind the TV. You could mix and match firetv sticks in areas a wifi signal would reach and android boxes with LAN ports where you need a wired connection.

Xibo is the server, so you'd need to either run it on a server or via docker - just as long as the screens can remotely connect then your golden! The company who created it do offer to host the cms on the cloud, but for 5 screens you would be looking at around £135.00+ vat. Would be cheaper to use docker as its free!

You can make each screen run the same content or each one have different content at different times. The content you have ranges from video's/webpages/text/RSS feeds or a mix of them all - and loads more.

Being a cms, you just configure what you want on the displays remotely, then schedule when and for how long. You can schedule stuff for months in advance!


I've used it for years and just learning the newer version now. So any questions, just ask.

This is an example of a basic screen in action(it can do more than what you see here)

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[dexyweescot]

Thanks for the replies and that may help for the future.

I think im on the right track by publishing the spreadsheet to HTML.

I just need to figure out how to add the refresh code to it. The auto-publish in Excel is used so every time the data gets updated and saved, the html is updated.

Im guessing I would then need 2 HTML pages. One to capture the spreadsheet data, the other to mirror this and add the refresh. Unless I can add this to VB.

I may just been complicating this haha.

 

[fus10n]

just cos i see your wanting excel. Maybe this might be what your after?

Xibo Documentation | Xibo Open Source Digital Signage more sepcifically, Remote datasets.

 

[dexyweescot]

Got it all sorted guys, thanks for your help. The process I used:

Used Excel to safe as webpage and uploaded this to a web server.
Opened created HTML and inserted a refresh code thanks to @VectorZ for that.
Saved HTML.

I got the user to set his print screen as he usually would and set to auto-publish and to save after every change.

I got a load of Android TV's setup round the workshop & ran out some cat5 to each one. Using browsers and pointing to the newly created HTML thats refreshing very 2 minutes.

Everyone seems happy & jobs a good un!